One day after Lewis Ferebee was announced as a finalist to lead the Los Angeles school district, the Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent withdrew himself from consideration.

Ferebee released a statement Wednesdsay afternoon through the IPS media relations team, who said the superintendent would not be making additional comments.

“Recently, I was announced as one of the finalists for the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent position," Ferebee's statement said. "After further discussing this endeavor with my family, the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners, and those handling the search process, I have withdrawn my name from consideration. It was an honor to have been considered for an opportunity of this magnitude.”

Ferebee's name was first listed among finalists for the job in a report Tuesday from The Los Angeles Times. Ferebee's candidacy was confirmed that afternoon by Michael O'Connor, president of the IPS school board.

It's unclear if Ferebee met in person with representatives from LAUSD, but he did participate in a panel discussion at a conference in San Diego — about two hours away — on Wednesday.

O'Connor said that Ferebee called Wednesday morning to inform the board he was withdrawing his name.

"I think it popped up quicker than he anticipated and he and his wife hadn't had a chance to really discuss it," O'Connor said. "(They) determined they wanted to continue living in Indianapolis and stick with the things we're in the middle of and continue to vigorously address the challenges we're addressing."

L.A. Unified, the country's second-largest school district, has been searching for a new leader since February when then-Superintendent Michelle King announced she had cancer and would not return from medical leave.

According to the LA Times report, Ferebee was one of four finalists. The front-runner appears to be Austin Beutner, a former investment banker. The report says that Beutner looks to have more support on the seven-member board but he is facing some controversy after it was revealed that his nonprofit, Vision to Learn, has fallen short in its commitment to provide vision screenings and glasses to low-income students.

Interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who has been managing the district since King left on medical leave last fall, also made it to the second round, according to the report. It named​ ​Ferebee and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso, who teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as two more possible finalists.

Ferebee has been with IPS since 2013. His contract was renewed in 2016, extending his original employment term into 2019. He received a salary bump of 2.24 percent this school year, bringing his base pay up to $214,581 a year. In November, he was awarded a $28,000 performance bonus. Combined with annual retirement contributions and a monthly automobile allowance, his annual compensation tops $286,768.

Previously, he worked at several districts in North Carolina. Most recently, Ferebee served as chief of staff for Durham Public Schools, a struggling urban district, not unlike IPS.

The move to L.A. Unified would have been a big jump for Ferebee. The district serves more than 700,000 students, compared to the 30,000 enrolled in IPS, but faces many of the same budget and competition challenges — albeit on a much larger scale.

O'Connor said it shouldn't come as a surprise that other districts are interested in the IPS chief, given the district's innovative approach and academic improvement under Ferebee's tenure. The district's graduation rate has improved from 68 percent to 83 percent, during his five years at IPS.

Ferebee has created a name for himself nationally for the district's close collaboration with charter schools, unusual for a public school system. Under Ferebee's tenure, the district has brought eight independent charter schools into the IPS fold and converted eight existing schools to "innovation schools" network. Several more schools are slated to join the innovation network in the fall.

Ferebee's decision to stay comes at a critical time for IPS. The district is in the midst of closing three high schools and a middle school, completely overhauling its academic model for high schools and planning a tax-hike referendum for the fall ballot, with the help of the Indy Chamber.

"When you begin to test new ideas and approaches to problems and start to see success... It is our anticipation that people will approach (Ferebee) about going to other, larger school systems," O'Connor said. " No one on the board was upset about that.